Israel Targets, Kills Plo Official

Arafat Denounces Airstrike At Meeting With Clinton In U.s.

WASHINGTON — Frustrated by escalating violence in the Mideast, President Clinton met with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat on Thursday as the White House retooled its mediation efforts into a more modest bid to restore dialogue between Arabs and Israelis.

Arafat arrived at the White House hours after Israeli helicopter gunships descended on a West Bank town and fired rockets into a van carrying Hussein Abayat, a leader of Arafat's Fatah, a faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization. Israelis described Abayat, who was killed in the attack, as mastermind of the killing of three Israeli soldiers and pledged to continue with such strikes.

Clearly angered by what Palestinians are calling a deliberate assassination, Arafat told reporters following the meeting that he was willing to resume peace negotiations, but he blamed Israel for the continuation of violence.

"We are facing a very dangerous situation that's especially hindering the peace process," Arafat said outside the White House. "I am not the one who initiated the violence. My tanks are not attacking Israelis. My artillery is not sieging Israeli towns."

Israeli intelligence apparently had Abayat under surveillance for some time. The rocket attack also killed two women who were passing nearby in the village of Beit Sahour, West Bank, not far from Bethlehem.

The Israeli army lobbied heavily for Prime Minister Ehud Barak's approval of the attack on the basis that Abayat's group was specifically targeting Israeli officers, including the Israeli army chief, Lt. Gen. Shaul Mofaz. Barak, who once held Mofaz's job, assented.

Mofaz told Israeli radio that a rash of Palestinian violence would likely follow the helicopter attack, but he said Israel had to make a show of force, given the threat to its soldiers.

"In the short run, this response will increase the activity of armed Fatah men in the area," Mofaz said. "But in the long run, everyone who wants to harm Israeli army soldiers and citizens of Israel must know that he won't be spared."

Seven Palestinian civilians and four gunmen colleagues of Abayat were wounded in the strike. In a break from standard Israeli practice in the six-week crisis, there was no warning of the helicopter attack. Israeli officials said they could see no civilians nearby at the time of the strike; Palestinians insisted they were in plain sight.

The van in which Abayat was riding was left a hulk of blackened wreckage.

More than 180 people have been killed in six weeks of violence, most of them Palestinian. The specific targeting of leaders, however, represents an escalation of the conflict.

Palestinian negotiator Hassan Asfour said on Palestinian television that he warned his Israeli counterparts "the long arm cannot reach out without having its fingers cut off."

Clinton administration officials stopped short of publicly criticizing Israel but made clear their dismay over the latest intensification of the violence.

"We continue to be frustrated that the violence continues, and it remains a major focus of our discussions with both sides," White House spokesman P.J. Crowley said after Arafat's two-hour meeting with Clinton in the Oval Office. "What we need to see is a de-escalation on both sides rather than an escalation."

As for the helicopter attack, Crowley said only, "We continue to gather facts."

Gone is the talk at the White House and State Department of an ambitious "comprehensive" peace agreement. White House officials now speak of ending the violence and returning the parties to a "political process" as opposed to a "peace process."

The subtle shift in terminology reflects a prevailing view at the White House that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will now have to be resolved gradually, not in one dramatic summit meeting.

"Violence breeds violence, and we must find a way to break this cycle," said Samuel "Sandy" Berger, Clinton's national security adviser. The focus, Berger said, was "whether and how to get back to a political process. Where we go from here, obviously, we'll have to evaluate after these meetings."

Clinton is set to meet with Barak on Sunday, shortly before the president leaves for an 11-day trip to Asia that will include a visit to Hanoi. Last July, Clinton delayed departure on an Asia trip in hopes of making progress at the Mideast summit at Camp David. No such hopes are being entertained now by administration officials.

The White House was saying nothing about what, if anything, may follow Clinton's return from Asia.

Clinton appeared briefly at the West Wing entrance with Arafat, clasping his hand and whispering something in his ear. He made no comments to reporters. Arafat then returned to his hotel to receive Secretary of State Madeleine Albright for further discussions.